Israeli PM Yair Lapid arrives in Berlin accompanied by Holocaust survivors
- The aim of the visit is to coordinate positions on the nuclear issue and to finalise a document on strategic, economic and security cooperation, Lapid said
- The meeting between Lapid and Scholz had been agreed during a phone call after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Holocaust outburst in mid-August
Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid has arrived in Berlin for a visit accompanied by several Holocaust survivors.
“As we stepped off the plane together and on to German soil, we were welcomed by a German military honour guard,” Lapid said after arriving on Sunday evening. “This is their victory, mine as the son of a Holocaust survivor and ours as a people and a nation. We will never forget.”
Among other things, talks with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Chancellor Olaf Scholz are planned for Monday.
The aim of the visit is to coordinate positions on the nuclear issue and to finalise a document on strategic, economic and security cooperation to be signed in Berlin, Lapid said before his departure.
A joint press conference with Scholz is scheduled for Monday afternoon.
Germany is one of the countries campaigning to revive the 2015 international nuclear agreement with Iran. Israel wants to prevent the deal being revived as it feels existentially threatened by Iran and considers the agreement insufficient. The US left the agreement unilaterally in 2018 under then-president Donald Trump.
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The meeting between Lapid and Scholz had been agreed during a phone call after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Holocaust outburst in mid-August. Abbas had accused Israel of a multiple “Holocausts” against the Palestinians at a joint press conference with Scholz, sparking outrage.
The German chancellor only distanced himself clearly the following day. This was criticised by many as being too late.
On Monday afternoon, Scholz and Lapid plan to visit the House of the Wannsee Conference in Berlin, where high-ranking Nazis met in 1942 to plan the mass murder of the Jews.
